harry reid said that efforts were slow to a deal. it'll be too difficult to reach a deal before christmas. >> i'm sorry. start over again. speaker boehner says he is waiting on president obama to outline spending cuts. this is kind of a strange thing for the speaker to say. president obama outlined specific cuts in his proposal to the republicans. republicans have not offered anything specific in cuts whatsoever. and nothing specific in revenue whatsoever. all generalizations. republicans want more spending cuts. tell us what you want, we say to them. we cannot read their minds. we will not make a proposal for them. they know that we are willing to make tough choices on these issues. i hope they understand by now that we will look out for the middle class first. illinois standing in the way of an agreement is republicans. -- the only thing standing in the way of an agreement is republicans. there is a lot of bluster coming from the republicans about society kremlin quickly. every day -- crumbling quickly. they are calling on the spea